Posted: Oct 18, 2015 8:31 am
igorfrankensteen wrote:I clearly didn't describe things well enough there.
The fact that something pleases me, is NOT what makes it a principle. The fact that I adhere to it whether I am pleased about it or not, is what makes it so.
And why do you adhere to it whether you are pleased about it or not, igorfrankensteen?
You have backwards, what I was stumblingly trying to say.
So your accusation is false, or at least a misrepresentation of how "pleased with yourself" means a very different thing to me, than it does to unprincipled people.
Could you dial it back a bit? I haven't accused you of anything, nor have I misrepresented you. I used your own terms from the post you made.You said your principles are designed to make you feel okay about yourself. These are the exact words you used. I certainly didn't use the phrase "pleased with yourself", so I was unsure for a moment whether you were actually talking to me at all.
I have made adjustments to how I described my principles, when I have discovered that my description of them was inaccurate relative to what I actually believed. I have never set them aside for the sake of personal gratification, or denied them temporarily, or made up excuses for why it's okay to ignore them.
And why have you made adjustments when you have discovered that your description was inaccurate relative to what you actually believed, igorfrankensteen?
Set aside, make adjustments - it doesn't really matter. You change them for a better fit. And the fit is better because? A clue here is that that doesn't make you feel worse.
It is perhaps a subtle distinction, which I know that a lot of people willfully refuse to make. Especially if they want to excuse their own failure to follow their own claimed principles. But it is a very real distinction, nevertheless.
It may be, but it doesn't actually counter what I said, since the part I am arguing with remains unchanged - that your principles are designed to make you feel okay about yourself.